Meeting
by JustAnotherObsessedFangirl
Summary: 8 years after the war ended and Palpatine revealed as a Sith and defeated, Rex is on a mission on Tatooine were he meets a young boy named Luke. Part one in my new series SEPARATE.


**Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise.**

Rex might not spend his down time in a way most people would view as normal.

He's got a weeks leave from the army and chose to use that time on a mission with the Freedom Trail.

Slavery is a big thing in the outer Rim, the Freedom Trail works to take down slavers and free everyone they can, it use to be that they would sneak out one person at the time. But that was before the Clone wars ended.

After the war the Jedi had the clone army freed, (and fixed the ageing problem) the Senate wasn't too happy to lose their disposable army but no one can really argue with the Negotiator and the Man Without Fear. But after they were freed a lot of clones wanted to do the same and past on the freedom and so they joined the Trail.

With so many soldiers in the group the Trail was now able to do hits on compounds, and free thousands more every day.

Rex himself, having chosen to stay in the army is more of a part time member, but in the 8 years since the War ended and he joined he's done a lot of good.

This weeks mission is on Tatooine, a town called Anchorhead is acting as a transfer point for over 100 new slaves, all people caught within the last month. They are going in, freeing the slaves and getting any intel out of the slavers they can.

He's leading a team in after dark to free everybody they can before they get transferred to a market in the morning.

"Ready sir" a brother, Spring tells him holding his blaster ready.

Rex nods, "Circle around the back, Don take your team left, Kitster go right."

The three team leaders nod moving into position to surround the building, once they're in place Rex leads a team to front door.

"We're a go" he says into his comm before firing on a guard.

The guard yells something in Huttese into his comm, likely a call for backup. Good.

Rex shoots him again, this time killing him.

As expected more guards rush outside to fight.

_"Were in"_ Spring reports.

_"Broken down the wall" _Kitser adds, "_Going in now, the guards haven't noticed yet."_

_"Course they haven't. That's the point of Rex's attack" _Don points out playfully, _"We're in to Rex"_ _h_e adds like an after thought.

Rex doges a blaster shot and shots back, killing the guy just as a dozen more appear.

"_Found the prisoners"_ Kitser reports a good 20 minutes later, _"Moving out now."_

"Acknowledged" Rex nods his head, pushing forward as though they really are trying to get in.

"_We're out"_ Kitser speaks another 20 minutes later.

"_Coming in"_ Oddball answers, bringing the Trail ship down to pick up the prisoners.

"Move!" Rex calls, moving towards the ship and shooting any bad guys that come close.

The Trail members move to defend and help them board the ship.

"There setting up canons!" a brother yells from across the battlefield.

"Kriff" Rex hisses, the last thing they need is the slaver scum able to shot their ship out of the sky. "Red team I need those canons down now!" he orders on his comm.

"_Yes Sir!"_

The fighters come out of the Trail ship and start firing on the bad guys the their canons.

"AAAAHHH!"

Rex turns at the scream, spotting a small human boy on the ground with a blaster shot to the leg, he runs to the kid and kills the bad guy before he can fire again, "It's okay kid, I got you" he offers a hand.

The blond, blue eyed boy smiles back weakly, taking the hand.

Rex pulls him to his feet, then picks him up, "Hold on to me" he asks him firing on another creep and running for the ship, firing again and again and again on every bad guy he sees.

"DOWN!"

Rex dives to the grounds at the yell as the canons start firing on them, he finds a rockwall for cover then looks to the kid, "You alright kid?" he checks as bombs continue to go off around them.

The boy nods, hold his leg and trying to look at the blaster wound in the dark.

"Want me to check that?" he offers taking out a med kit.

The boy nods, so Rex checks it, the night vision goggles he's wearing with his desert camo gear (he'd rather be wearing his clone amour but the Trail has different uniform, though it does still totally cover his face) letting him see the wound. It's not life threatening but it sure as hell isn't good. "Well Kix, one of my brothers is going to need to have a look at it when we get on the ship."

The kid nods, "Okay" he nods quietly, "Thank you."

Rex nods pushing them both down when a explosion goes off nearby. "I'm Rex, what's your name?"

"Luke" he replies looking up, "Can we get to the ship?" he asks hopefully.

But Rex shakes his head, "We'd never make it through the battlefield. We need to wait for Red team, those fighters" he clarifies pointing up to them, "To take out those canons first, then we can go."

"_Rex, were are you?"_ Kitser asks over his comm.

"Pinned down" he replies, "I'm stuck behind a rockwall with a kid" he looks over the boy who sends him a curios look, "What's the situation?"

"_You have Lukka? We where looking for him. Everyone but you two are on board….Oddball says he needs to leave now if he wants to leave at all" _Kitser tells him apologetically.

"Kriff!" Rex huffs, just what he needed, "Alright. I'll find my own way off world."

"_Understood, good luck Rex." _

He turns to the worried looking boy.

"Are we not getting off?" Luke asks worriedly.

"We will" Rex promises as the ship takes off, "I'll get you out of here kid. You have my word."

Someone yells something in Huttese and the shooting and canons stop, the canons turning up to the ship and the bad guys running back inside.

Good a chance as he's going to get, "We gotta move" he picks Luke up again and starts moving.

"Head west" Luke suggests, "If we keep going west we'll hit Mos Eisley by sunrise."

"Sounds good to me" Rex agrees, he's got enough peggats to buy passage to Naboo for two, from there he can send the kid onto the Freedom Trail to find his family then catch a ride on a military vehicle back to Coruscant.

He keeps low and quiet until well out of sight, thankfully no one spots them, so he keeps moving, still carrying the injured boy.

"Do you have family on the Freedom Trail ship Luke?" Rex asks him, wanting to know if there's anyone still there for him.

But the kid shakes his head, "My Aunt and Uncle raised me. But…. They couldn't make Jabba's last 'tax' payment a-and they wanted me for payment. The-they fought and his men killed them and took me anyway" he stiffs, holding back tears.

"Sorry kid" Rex grimaces, the Trail will find a good orphanage for him, but it's still not fair.

"Thanks" he smiles weakly, _"They died fighting the ones who bind the chains, they past on free with the ones they love and doing what they loved" _he mutters in Amatakka.

It's something Rex has heard before from people he's helped in the past, they say it when they morn loved ones who didn't make it out but died free. He'd been curios about what it meant for a while and eventually asked Kitser, who grew up a slave on Tatooine and is a good friend. Kitser was hesitant to explain it to a outsider but did eventually tell him about it and a few 100 stories about Ekkreth. (which were surprisingly good stories) point is, if the boy is saying it but hasn't been a slave for long then his parents must have been (the fact his name Luke/Lukka means free really pushes that for him.)

Getting off this planet will be good for him, somewhere there isn't slavery, might end the unfortunate family history for good.

It's not too long before Luke falls into a restless sleep, Rex keeps walking. He needs to get the kid off this dustball.

He walks all night, thankfully not encountering any of Jabba's men and making it to Mos Eisley just after the suns rise.

"Luke, time to wake up" he puts the boy down.

"Oh" he yawns rubbing his eyes before looking around, "Rex are you..." he frowns, "Are you going into to town dressed like that?" he questions.

Good point, the Freedom Trail uniform is an instant licence to shoot first ask questions never with Jabba's men. Rex takes off the mask first, then the gloves and body amour, and stuffs it in his bag, it still looks like the uniform but not as much. It will have to do.

"You're a clone."

Rex turns to the boy when he speaks, Luke's eyes wide in realisation. "That a problem?" he raises an eyebrow, hoping that's not the case.

"No, no, no" the boy shakes his head quietly, "That's not what I meant!" he promises, clearly worried he upset Rex. "I just-I've never met a clone before, but I've heard lots of stories from the war and you're heroes!" he blushes awkwardly realising he was babbling.

Rex tries to suppress a grin, good, this is much better than it being a problem. Excited kids are pretty fun. General Skywalker's daughter Leia loves hearing stories about the war, lots of the kids he meets on missions want to hear stories.

"Can you tell me a story?" Luke asks hopefully, as expected.

"Sure" he agrees, taking some rations out of his bag and hands Luke breakfast. "Near the start of the war Cody (a brother) and I were inspecting a base on Rishi Moon, that's were I met Domino Squad..."

He tells the story while they eat, then two more stories. The kid happily soaking them up, loving every word.

He draws the line at four stories, pointing out that they need to find somebody to give them a ride, so Luke reluctantly nods and limps into town, letting Rex help him when it hurts to much to walk on his own.

They go two five different smugglers, all of them refusing either with a rude comment about clones or Rex refusing because of the looks they send Luke or how much they want to take Luke without him.

"Maybe" the 6th smuggler frowns thoughtfully, "Cost you 15 thousand though."

"10" he shoots back, he's got 30 thousand but he's not going to waste it all if he doesn't have to.

"13 and a half" the smuggler glares back looking him over, then freezing. "You're with the Trail" he realises, his glare getting harsher.

Kriff, no one else paid that much attention to his clothes today.

"You assholes lost me a lot of money" his hand moves to his blaster.

Rex pulls out his own blaster and pulls the kid close. "Don't even think about it" he warns.

The smuggler keeps glaring, his blaster aimed at Rex's head. "Bet that little shits one of the escapes from last night. Hand him over!"

"Like hell!" Rex glares back, a arm on Luke's shoulder to make sure he stays close.

The smuggler scoffs, "Kriffing clone freak" and fires.

Rex dives for cover, keeping the boy close and moves to fire back... but the smugglers shot never hit anything.

Rex looks to where he use to be standing, to were a blaster bolt is now hanging in mid air.

"Rex."

He turns to Luke at his name, seeing the boy with one hand up and staring in shock at the bolt.

Luke is Force-Sensitive.

"Come on!" he picks Luke up, throwing him over his shoulder and running as every crook in the area starts shooting, they do not like Force-Sensitives on Tatooine, not one bit.

"This way!" a familiar voice calls.

Rex looks over and almost groans, "Hondo I really don't have time for right now!" he yells dodging a blast.

The pirate frowns as though he's offended, "I am trying to help you... errr Cody" he guesses.

"I'm Rex" he rolls his eyes, firing into the crowd.

"Of course, of course" Hondo smiles from the other side of the street, "Look I heard you were looking for a way off this dustball, I didn't realise you were a clone I knew til you recognised me. But I'm always happy to help a paying clone. Especially one escorting a Jedi youngling" he waves to Luke.

Rex frowns, it's not like he has any other options. "Fine" he agrees, "Luke he's giving us a ride" he tells the boy.

Luke nods into his shoulder, "We can trust him?" he asks hopefully.

Rex just grimaces, "Remember the story I told you about Ahsoka, the Jedi younglings and the pirates?"

"Oh."

"Come on!" Hondo calls gesturing them towards his ship.

"Hold on kid" he asks jumping up and running, dodging blasts and firing on everyone he can and rolling into the pirate ship.

"Take off!" Hondo calls into his comm, closing the door.

"_Yes sir" _a voice replies on the comm as the engine starts up.

"Well that was exciting!" Hondo claps happily, "Now I'm thinking 17 thousand for passage to...were did you want to go again?"

"Any Republic world will do" Rex replies handing him the half money, screw Naboo the sooner he's away from the pirate the better. "Half now, half when we get there."

Hando just smiles brighter, "Sounds good to me!" Now you recognised me, tell me how did we meet! Normally I can place a face pretty well. But well" he gestures to Rex as an explanation.

"I was General Skywalker's Captain through the war" he answers putting Luke, Luke who straightens at the General's name.

"What? I-" he cuts himself off, looking back to Hondo. "I'll tell you later" he decides quietly.

"You got a med bay?" Rex asks before Hondo can speak again, "I need to give the kids leg a real check."

Hondo nods, "Of course, it's one floor up, door 94. I'll have our doctor meet you there."

"Thank you" he nods back, picking the boy up again and walking away from the annoying pirate.

So the kid is Force-Sensitive, that means he can take him to the temple. The kid is growing on him and its a better option than a orphanage, plus he'd get to see the kid a lot, something that definitely _wouldn't_ annoy Rex.

The kids a little old, but that doesn't matter. He'll have a talk with Gene...Anakin (he's been telling him to call him by his first name for years but its still weird) Ahsoka and Gen...Obi-Wan they'll get the kid into the Order.

"Rex" Luke speaks pulling him from his thoughts.

"Yeah Luke?"

"You..." he hesitates, "You served with a General Skywalker?"

"I did" Rex acknowledges, wondering were this is going.

"Was it a Anakin Skywalker?" Luke asks hopefully.

"Why do you ask?" he frowns, its normal for people in the Outter Rim to not of heard of Anakin, Rex himself was guesses it was going to be a question about the name and Ekkreth, he wouldn't be the first Tatooine slave kid to hear that name and ask about the sky walker trickster.

"My last name is Skywalker" he answers surprising the hell out of the clone, "And Uncle Owen said my Dad's name was Anakin. That he was a Jedi? Whatever that is. Is your General Skywalker my Father?" he asks hopefully.

Well Kriff.

**I used ****Fialleril Tatooine Slave Culture** **in this story, it's something I'd definitely recommend checking out.**


End file.
